Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Morning Sickness Update

Today, I have some fantastic news I'd like to share with everyone who has been praying for my severe morning (haha!) sickness, or just plain curious how I am.

In a word: BETTER! In fact, I am almost back to feeling normal! If I keep improving at the rate I have been, I would say probably another two weeks or so and I should be in the clear.

Which means that I only was severely ill for about five or six weeks this time - usually, it's about 12 to 14 (from week 4 to 16).

Currently, I am in my 14th week of pregnancy. The nausea didn't become unbearable (and the throwing up incessant) until week 8 or 9. There were many times between week 4 and 8/9 that I started getting ill, but was able to avert it by taking some baking soda, relaxing, and having a snack. At its worst, nothing will alleviate the nausea, so this was definitely an improvement.

I did try several new things this time around, but the frustrating part is that I have no clue which, if any of these strategies, helped, or if my feeling better was just a fluke. The things I suspect helped the most were:

- An excellent, very gentle prenatal: New Chapter Organics Perfect Prenatal. I cannot say enough about how great these are, and they never make me nauseous. Well, swallowing ANY pill with ANY water makes me ill when I have been throwing up all day, but once they are down they don't bother me.

- Fish oil supplement: Again, New Chapter takes the cake with Wholemega. Very pleasant, and easily digested with no "fishy burps".

- Baking soda: I knew that my nausea was in part caused by excessive amounts of stomach acid (I new this because of how much there was whenever I threw up). Baking soda neutralizes stomach acid, this settling the nausea. The thought of drinking baking soda water was utterly disgusting to me, but I was able to fill empty capsules with baking soda and take it that way. Each capsule contained about 1/8 tsp, which is a tiny amount, and even taking just one capsule four times a day kept my head above the water in those early weeks of nausea. Once the hyperemesis hit, they no longer worked, though. Maybe a higher dose would have, but I could not bring myself to swallow more capsules. Throwing up baking soda turned out to be even more disgusting than drinking it, so I completely gave up on it at that point. I guess this used to be a commonly suggested remedy for morning sickness until concerns about sodium intake made it fall out of fashion several decades ago.

- Mommy's Bliss Morning Sickness Comfort capsules. However, just as with the baking soda caps, I got to where I could not longer swallow these without the combination of water + pills making my stomach turn, and had to discontinue these around the same time.

- Beaked Hazel necklace from Inspired by Finn: I first bought one necklace months before this pregnancy, and have worn it ever since. As it turns out, one of my midwife's students works for the company. She came over one day to clean my house for me (talk about service!! - could you imagine your OB sending his nurse to help you out??), and she suggested that wearing two necklaces might give more relief. I promptly ordered another one, and definitely have to say that within a couple of days of wearing both is when I started improving. Maybe a fluke, but probably not based on the huge success we had with Anna's amber teething necklace (and here, too).

- Ricola cough drops: hard candy is supposed to help by raising blood sugar levels quickly. For me, only these particular ones worked.

- Reed's ginger brew: while I detest all ginger, or all suggestions of it, during pregnancy, this particular natural ginger ale would help settle my stomach after particularly violent bouts of sickness (very cold, over ice).

- After reading suggestions on another blog about morning sickness remedies, I decided to try protein bars for middle-of-the-night nausea attacks, and to keep in my purse to snack on while out and about. The ones I liked best, both in taste and how quickly they would help alleviate some nausea, were "Green Super Food Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar". The only gross thing about them was the fact that under the outside chocolate coating, these are very green on the inside. I got around the whole idea by simply not looking whenever I would take a bite. Unlike other protein bars I tried, these did not have gritty/sandy texture.

- Lastly, any snack high in protein seemed to help as long as I ate it before becoming too sick. One snack before bedtime that would usually help hold me over until the morning was a piece of mozzarella. Greek yogurt was also very helpful.

I have had one pregnancy where I almost did not get sick at all (Becky), but for the life of me I cannot figure out what made the difference that time. Every other time, it has been severe hyperemesis. This time, it was severe, but short-lived, and even then I had a functional window for a couple of hours on most days, allowing me to continue minimal housework and homeschooling.

Anyway, no use speculating, I guess. Thank you for your prayers, as I am sure they were a huge contributing factor to my feeling better.

15 comments:

I am very happy you are getting better ! I have never been around a pregnant woman (I'm the second of two children in my family), and I don't know what it's like, so your posts were quite a surprise ! I wouldn't have imagined that it was so unpleasant to be pregnant.

However, there is so much hope and love when a lady is expecting a baby. I mean, a loving mother having another child is wonderful, and I wonder how this next baby will be ! A boy, a girl, quiet or excited child ? Blond hair, dark hair ? Will it love to read, to play outside ? We can only wait to know ! I'm sure your whole family is so excited about it.

I am a scout leader. I'm not sure of your position about it, as you are against daycare and public school. Scouting was a great experience for me, I started at 8 and now I'm the one making activities for the little ones. I can only see that each and every child is so unique. Taking care of other people's children only makes me want to have children ! We even have twins who are so different from each other !

YAY! I am so happy that you have been feeling better. These are all great suggestions...wish I had known about them/tried them when I was so very sick earlier on in this pregnancy. But, now I know and will be sure to look this post up the next time around!!! There is nothing like feeling normal when you are pregnant (normal as in not sick)!!

Thank you so much for listing everything that has helped you, I'm 6 weeks pregnant with my first baby and experiencing a lot of nausea that is hard to handle as I currently work full time so I will be trying some of these tips! I'm glad you're feeling better and hope you continue to go from strength to strength. God bless, Hannah.

SOoo happy you are feeling better! Thank you for posting this. I'm definetly going to try some of these things next time around! I had discovered the baking soda tip post pregnancy (of course). I use it now in then in water, because for whatever reason I've continued to have heart burn issues, though not ANYWHERE close to as bad as during pregnancy! It seems to do the trick almost instantly but can't say how well it will work when I'm pregnant. Have you ever thought of using those prenatal "gummies"? I thought those might be easier to get down, next time around. I'd almost throw the other ones right back up or I'd choke on them. I swear just the smell of them made me sick! Maybe the ones you use don't smell but I tried a few and yuck!-Karen E

I'm so glad you're getting better! Do you still have aversions to certain foods? I don't wake up feeling sick anymore, but I can't look at raw meat. I've had to recruit my husband to cook the meat around here for right now, and I just stick to cooking side dishes.

When I was at the worst of my sickness (which is nothing compared to yours), I couldn't stand the smell of opening the bottle of those Perfect Prenatal vitamins. I can deal with it now as long as I've eaten something before I take them. I guess my stomach has just been super sensitive with this pregnancy.

Glad you're feeling better, and one thing that will help you to have a healthy pregnancy is to learn not to stress out so much about Facebook glitches. Remember to relax and take care of yourself so that your child will be born healthy.

About Me

I am the wife of a hard-working pastor and a stay-at-home Mom to our nine wonderful kids - Solomon (15), Isaac (14), John (12), Miriam (10), Rebecca (8), Anna (6), Stephen (5), Boaz (3), and Chloe (1).
We spend our days learning, working, playing, and putting out all kinds of fires as we serve our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Read all about the good, the bad, and the ugly days right here on my blog.

Google Website Translator

Solomon (15)

Typical firstborn. Very intelligent and logical. Loves to talk. Likes for things to be "right" and organized. Very honest and fair. Exceptional musical talent. Great helper with younger siblings. Very kind and loving.

Isaac (14)

Loves anything to do with being outdoors: riding bikes, hiking, camping, caring for animals, exploring, horseback riding, etc. Very reliable and polite. My "Mr. Fix-It" man. Never ever complains. Tough, but has a very tender heart. Devours books at incredible speed.

John (12)

Our quirky child. Funny and artistic. Precocious and empathetic. Loving older brother to his younger siblings. A bit of daredevil.

Miriam (10)

Beautiful and sweet. Kind and mothering with her younger siblings. Loves being by my side 24/7. My big helper. Has a great sense of style.

Rebecca (8)

Full of energy. Smart and mischievous in a very loveable way. Very tidy. Loves to help with anything she can. Dotes on her younger siblings. Daddy's girl, bookworm.

Anna (6)

Sweet girly girl. Loves pretend playing with her siblings and her dollies. Wants to be a big girl like her sisters. Tenderhearted.

Stephen (5)

Full of energy. Loves to climb onto anything. Wild and rambunctious. All boy, and always happy. A smaller version of his dad, with whom he shares his name and birthday.

Boaz (3)

This little guy is an extra special blessing after a complicated twin pregnancy. Mellow and easy-going. Chatterbox. Smart cookie with a heart of gold.

Chloe (1)

Currently the youngest member of our family. A precious little doll that brightens all of our lives. Smiles, coos, gives kisses, and brings joy every day.